In this offbeat costume horror film set in 1912, Hans
(Pierre Brice), a young art student, is sent to a remote Dutch village to
collect information about the local windmill. The windmill is decorated with
moving sculptures of women in various gruesome scenes of torture and death.
Professor Wahl (Herbert Boehme), the curator of the windmill, also teaches art
and sculpture. Among the professor's students, Hans meets Liselotte (Dany
Carrel), his childhood friend who still loves him. He also gets acquainted
with Wahl's beautiful daughter, Elfi (Scilla Gabel), who suffers from a rare
blood disease and is not allowed to leave her house. Then Hans discovers the
shocking secret behind the professor's attempts to keep his daughter alive.

NOTE: Your comparisons of MILL OF THE
STONE WOMEN doesn't mention anything about the color strobbing throughout
the Mondo Macabro edition, this is perhaps the most distracting flaw I've
ever seen on a DVD. I'm now interested in buying the English version of
the French DVD but the store you list has a different version (A
French/English/Italian version) - (Thanks Brian!)

*****

A difficult comparison because
we actually have three different versions of the same movie here. First we
have the Mondo Macabro DVD which, according to the liner notes in the
extras, restores all sections that were removed for the US release except
a bridge scene which was never dubbed in English. Next we have the Neo
Publishing DVD containing both a French and an English version, which
appears to be the US release. However, both DVDs seem to contain all the
different scenes in one way or the other.

The French version on the Neo Publishing is no match for the English
version or the Mondo Macabro. The image is not as sharp and cropped to about
1.78:1.
The real competition is between the Mondo Macabro and the English version
on the Neo Publishing. The Mondo Macabro contains slightly more picture on
top and bottom, but the main point of discussion is the colours. I'm
inclined to think the Mondo Macabro is more correct than the brownish
tinted Neo Publishing, especially when looking at screenshot 4.
Sharpness and the amount of print damage seems similar on both releases
except for screenshot 5 where the Mondo Macabro looks quite bad. The
explanation is that there are 2 versions of this hallucination scene.
Mondo Macabro has a different and shorter version, labeled "US cut", as an
extra. Neo Publishing however has this US cut in the English version while
the French version contains the alternate cut. A strange decision from
Mondo Macabro since the US cut is of much better image quality.

On to the sound. The Mondo Macabro contains a UK and US English track but
most voices are done by the same actors, Prof. Gregorius Wahl being the
most obvious exception. There is also a French track which reverts to
English in a couple of scenes. In this case, you can select English
subtitles for the French scenes or French subtitles for the English
scenes.
The Neo Publishing on the other hand allows you to choose between the US
English and Italian track with removable French subtitles. There are no
subtitles on the shorter French version which naturally only contains the
French track.

In the extras department Mondo Macabro has the upper hand with its well
written biographies and a wealth of publicity material, of which the Neo
Publishing photo gallery contains only a small fragment. Both DVDs have
the same trailer but for some reason the trailer on the Mondo Macabro
plays in an incorrect aspect ratio. Also note that all 3 alternate scenes
on the Mondo Macabro can be seen in either the French, albeit without
English subtitles, or in the English version on the Neo Publishing.
Another thing that will interest fans is that the notorious nipple scene
included by Mondo Macabro is also available in the French version on the
Neo Publishing.

Overall, both releases have their strengths and weaknesses. If you do not
speak French, Mondo Mabraco obviously wins due to the English subtitles
and 2 different English dubs. Neo Publishing limits you to the US English
dub. If however you do speak French, the Neo Publishing contains an
Italian track and gives you the possibility to view the US and French
version of the film in their original form.